Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia I rise to speak to the Greens' fatuous MPI. Our Greens colleagues would have us discuss a statement which, in fact, is a fallacy of many questions, variously asserting that investing in infrastructure somehow benefits billionaires at the expense of the future of 'everyday Australians'. How wrong can they get?

As the party of smug government-employed Canberra bureaucrats and middle-class elites, the Greens would have no idea—nor would they care for the future—of everyday Australians. In fact, all this Greens MPI really reflects is the Greens' neurotic and irrational hostility to coalmining and coal based power generation, regardless of the impact of this on the standard of living of everyday Australians, as often their screechings contradict the evidence and the facts.

The real truth is that the last 170 years has seen billions of people lifted out of poverty and removed from the vagaries of nature's weather, extremes of drought, flood and famine. We have enjoyed vastly lengthened life spans, greatly increased comfort, safety, ease and security. And this has occurred hand in hand with a miracle of hydrocarbon fuels, coal, gas and oil that, until recent Greens-led government interventions, saw ever-falling real prices.

Unlike the Greens, informed senators would be aware that the Carmichael coalmine, to be built by the Adani group in the north of the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland, represents a $16.5 billion investment in our state. Expected to produce 2.3 billion tonnes of coal over a projected 60-year lifespan, this wonderful project will generate thousands of jobs and many hundreds of millions of dollars of export earnings for our nation—jobs needed because Queensland's Labor government has killed our state through excessive energy prices, needless tax and over-regulation and the theft of property rights that are decimating regions.

As the first of a number of mines expected to be built in the Galilee Basin, the infrastructure to be built for the Carmichael mine will greatly facilitate the development of subsequent mines, which, in turn, will generate yet more jobs and yet more earnings for Australia. This is the reason that the northern Australia infrastructure fund plans to lend the $1 billion to which this MPI refers. This will not only facilitate the development of the Carmichael mine but also assist the development of numerous other subsequent mines by other companies and open up regional Queensland.

For the Greens to claim that a NAIF loan to build vital infrastructure somehow means that the government is 'working for billionaires' is simply logically incoherent. It is the Greens who feathered the nests of billionaires—American billionaires like George Soros—who drove down the share price of coal companies by calling for action on climate, contradicting the empirical evidence. Those billionaires drove down the share price of coal companies and then swooped to buy those same companies, expecting massive profits as coal in future fulfils huge forecast increases in usage in China, Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia, India and on and on. Also note that I said 'lend', because, contrary to the Greens' claim in their MPI, no-one is giving Adani anything. The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was set up precisely to lend money to assist in the development of railways, port and airport facilities, roads, water and communications facilities and on and on—specifically to assist the development of northern Australia.

The NAIF loan and the Carmichael mine will open up the Galilee Basin to the world, creating untold thousands of jobs and a treasure trove of government revenue and export earnings. Much of the coal mined in this region will go to India to power Prime Minister Modi's amazing industrial revolution. In addition to fuelling power generation that will help to transform much of India and provide the lighting, heating and cooling that we take for granted, this coal will also directly provide many with fuel for domestic cooking. Instead of facing the severe adverse health effects of burning animal dung or scarce wood, millions will benefit from being able to burn clean coal. Of course, as this ridiculous Greens MPI demonstrates, the Greens could not care less about creating jobs or generating export earnings here in Australia, much less about lifting much of India out of the Third World. Oh, no, the Greens could not give a damn about any of that; they are anti-human. Subject to our scheduled discussions on underground water, we support the Adani project and the opening up of our state of Queensland.